Sometimes you head out for an unstructured ride in search of hidden country gravel—“I think it’s up this next hill,” my buddy often reassures me—only to find a small patch at the very end of your route. On some adventure bikes, the slow roll to get there only to be met with a short-lived ride on gravel can be a bit of a letdown. But on the Breezer Inversion Team, every single mile—even if most of them end up on pavement—spells awesome. The bike blurs the line between road bike and adventure bike. Using steel tubing sourced from Japan, the company uses hydroforming techniques to shape tubes and strengthen sections without the need for heavy gussets, which keeps weight down. Breezer’s compact geometry keeps the frame small, light, and stiff, relying instead on longer components, like seatposts and stems, to fit more riders. Grinding up every climb was not an issue thanks to the compact 50/34 crankset and wide Shimano Ultegra 11-34 cassette. The handlebar’s 25-degree flare easily accommodates a bar bag and provides extra stability for descending choppy roads. And with mounts for up to five—five!—bottle cages, including two on the carbon fork, you’re just as ready to head out for a weekend bikepacking trip as you are for your Tuesday group ride.

The Breezer Inversion Family

The Inversion Team sits at the top of Breezer’s Inversion family, the racier end of its Adventure bike offerings. Its younger sibling, the $1,999 Inversion Pro, swaps in Shimano 105 and TRP HY/RD hydraulic disc brakes. The steel frames pack in mounts for racks, frame bags, and up to five water bottles to adapt to any riding conditions. Breezer also offers a more touring-oriented Doppler line of adventure bikes ($1,199 to $1,749), which feature 650b wheels and clearance for up to 27.5x2.25-inch mountain bike tires. And for people wanting to get really adventurous, the Radar line ($899 to $1,699) gets into true mountain bike territory, with large 700x45mm tires and the widest gearing of Breezer’s adventure bikes.

One Bike to Do It All

The Inversion lives up to its name by flipping the script on the N+1 equation: This bike really is meant to do it all. The frame uses Breezer’s “Compact Frame” geometry to keep weight down, while increasing stiffness. At 20.7 pounds for an XS, the bike felt surprisingly light for the comfort and stability it maintained on broken roads and gravel. The Shimano Ultegra 11-34 cassette is great for all-day rides that include equal amounts of climbing hills and speeding down tarmac. Mounts placed all over the frame let you adapt the bike for any outing. Happy-medium, 34mm WTB Exposure tires come with the bike, but there’s clearance for just about anything from 28m to 45mm. Want a plusher ride? Swap out the 700mm tires for 650b (up to 47mm).

The Inversion comes with 34mm WTB Exposure tires, but there’s clearance for up to 700x45mm and 650bx47mm.

Trevor Raab

Classic Look, Modern Performance

While the Inversion Team looks like a classic steel bike at first glance, it utilizes legendary frame builder Joe Breeze’s expertise to create a bike that’s at home both on and off-road. Usually, my goal on a group ride is just to keep up with the group, and this bike had plenty of snap when I needed it. The Ultegra hydraulic disc brakes were great for keeping things under control when the road loosened up or we found ourselves taking a classically straight (and sometimes terrifying) Pennsylvania downhill directly toward a stop sign.

Easy Rider

Lately, for me, getting out for a ride has been more about escaping and unwinding than anything else. And whenever I was riding the Inversion, I never felt like I needed to push the pace or climb another hill—I just kind of did it. It was this enabling feeling that really made me love this bike—I could get on it and go hard or slow or flat or steep or load it up for errands, and it was always just there for the journey saying, “Yeah, cool. Whatever you wanna do, man.” The Breezer Inversion was less about finding time to squeeze a ride into my busy life and more about living part of my life on the bike.

Pat HeineVideo ProducerThe resident ultrarunner, Pat is a video producer who joined the Bicycling team in 2016 after he tried to run a century ride, got injured, and bought a bike to rehab.

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